The official blog of a Speculative Mystery writer, reader, and sometimes editor…

Questions on a trinity’s demise – Whither BIG 3?

Over the past few days everywhere you look in the genre blogosphere, Specfic lovers (writers, readers, and editors) have been talking about the decline in the circulation figures of the BIG THREE.

For those of you new to the genre digests, the Big Three are:

Asimov’s;

Analog;

Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF)

Although, for the last few years, I’ve read several interviews that replace F&SF with other publications such as Realms of Fantasy. Perhaps, it’s a sign that F&SF is the one that in the most danger.

Anyhoo, people are asking:

Why is it happening?

What can be done?

Should something be done?

Here’s my two cents…

Why?

·Editorial unwillingness to find and service a niche;

·Print format and associated distribution problems;

·No e-subs. What does this have to do with declining sales? Well, many would-be subscribers are writers. Many writers have grown tired of the stone-age ‘postal submissions only’ mentality of the Big Three;

What can be done?

Bold moves like having guest editors for two issues. And not just regular editors. How about having some of the genre’s superstar / visionary writers play editor. Imagine people like Neil Gaiman or even Stephen King sending out acceptances for F&SF or Asimov’s or Analog. This would be a big drawing card for those not currently reading the big three.

Accept E-subs (at least during a limited window – perhaps, two periods of two weeks during the year.)

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One Response

I think the snooty attitude toward ezines, ebooks, and esubs are what’s going to be the downfall of the last remaining print mags for short stories. In the last year that I’ve been writing professionally, it’s become quite apparent to me that the Internet is the future of short fiction. People read short ebooks. People read ezines. Writers love esubs because the turn-around is quicker, and it tends to be more reliable than snail-mail.

It’s a fact of life that our culture, especially our music culture and our written culture, is moving digital. In fact, in a lot of ways, it’s already there. It’s stupid to try and pretend that print is the highest — and only — form of written expression there is. Not to say that people don’t prefer print format, there are a lot that do, and will continue to, but the fact is, with everything going digital, it is only a matter of time (maybe a long time, but still) before printed matter becomes antiquated. And besides that, the objective of a business is to provide their customers with the best possible experience. By not embracing things like esubs or putting their mag in e-format, they’re shooting themselves in the foot.

I think that the mags need to be considering this, and considering it hard.